Starting off as an on-site manager?

[Richard Low]

My wife and I are thinking about renting out our current home and find a job as an on-site manager couple. We live in NW Phoenix around Glendale/Peoria.

I'm bilingual, am about to finish my RE license as per Marty Boardman's suggestion, and have managed a four-plex and nursing home both as an on-site manager in the past, for a total of 2.5 years.

Do you think starting off as an on-site manager would be a good way to get more RE experience? I'm a graduate student and my wife is due late next month with our first child. We have 2 more years until I finish school and she's up for it, but we're not sure what to expect or if this is a reasonable goal. What are your thoughts?

As a separate question (maybe I should ask this as a different post), we would like to rent out our current home and manage it on the side while working as live-in managers. Here's the numbers:

2200 sqft (built in 2007, master-planned community)
3 br 2.5 bath

30 yr note, conventional 4.125% interest rate
Principal $180
Interest $420
Taxes $108
Insurance $45
Total PITI: $755

HOA: $148 (includes landscaping and 3 pools)
Total with HOA: $903

Market Rent: $1250

I know that $350 isn't that great of a margin, but we're willing to manage and repair it for the next two years. Since it's relatively new, I don't expect as many major repairs, but we still need to be prepared. I have Brandon's book on renting your primary residence, and I'm just looking for insight.

I'd hate to sell it right because the Phoenix market is hot and our home has gone from $130k to ~$200k since we bought it in April 2011. I think the next two years still holds some increase and I'd hate to miss out on that if we can keep our home cash-flowing in the meantime.

I started the "I joined the Flip2Freedom Academy today" thread a while back, and since then I've continued to listen to the BP podcast and finish up my RE license. Renting our home and managing a complex would be great for us right now since we don't have the capital or time to invest in RE in other ways, but I would love input from BP members on our plan!